Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

[BarbTherese]

Lyrics to Slow Train Coming - see video below...................:

 https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/slow-train/

 

WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN

Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can’t help but wonder what’s happenin’ to my companions
Are they lost or are they found
Have they counted the cost it’ll take to bring down
All their earthly principles they’re gonna have to abandon?
There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

I had a woman down in Alabama
She was a backwoods girl, but she sure was realistic
She said, “Boy, without a doubt
Have to quit your mess and straighten out
You could die down here, be just another accident statistic”
There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

All that foreign oil controlling American soil
Look around you, it’s just bound to make you embarrassed
Sheiks walkin’ around like kings
Wearing fancy jewels and nose rings
Deciding America’s future from Amsterdam and to Paris
And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

Man’s ego is inflated, his laws are outdated, they don’t apply no more
You can’t rely no more to be standin’ around waitin'
In the home of the brave
Jefferson turnin’ over in his grave
Fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan
And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

Big-time negotiators, false healers and woman haters
Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition
But the enemy I see
Wears a cloak of decency
All nonbelievers and men stealers talkin’ in the name of religion
And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

People starving and thirsting, grain elevators are bursting
Oh, you know it costs more to store the food than it do to give it
They say lose your inhibitions
Follow your own ambitions
They talk about a life of brotherly love show me someone who knows how to live it
There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

Well, my baby went to Illinois with some bad-talkin’ boy she could destroy
A real suicide case, but there was nothin’ I could do to stop it
I don’t care about economy
I don’t care about astronomy
But it sure do bother me to see my loved ones turning into puppets
There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

 

[BarbTherese]

I have three appointments coming up, important appointments.  The first is an MRI on my brain.  The neuropsychologist I saw while in hospital concluded that I had a very high intelligence level, but then suddenly at a point years ago that level dropped.  The MRI, it is hoped, might reveal why.  More in a later post re an 'alter ego' .

My second important appointment is with the Pain Clinic again.  The trapped nerves in my narrowed lower spine (spinal stenosis) are causing much severe pain, along with something or other causing much shoulder pain.  I am having some sort of test to identify the reason.

Finally, I have severe cataracts to be removed.

AT 77 years of age, it is almost as if bits are falling off me! ☹️

 

Readers Digest - How to grow old happily

            

Edited February 24, 2023 by BarbTherese

[BarbTherese]

Either/Or People + How Did Jesus Relate?

I do think that using violent words alone is a form of violence and hitting or striking another.  This is what Jesus was very much against.  But watch the video  

Engaging in an engaging manner, rather than a rejecting one, in whatever form - and with people who are other, even very much other, is a form of what I call "Doing a St Paul".  In other words, going out to the gentiles - to the other and engaging them.........watch the video   Doing a St Paul was one of my quite active quests during my very active days.  After all "Go ye out into THE WHOLE WORLD and preach The Gospel to every creature".   I cannot, after all, go out to the entire world, although the internet has broadened one's 'canvas', but I can go out to MY whole world.' That does of course include the internet.

 

 

[BarbTherese]

 

  

 

233.6

[BarbTherese]

1 hour ago, BarbTherese said:

Doing a St Paul was one of my quite active quests during my very active days. 

One of the quite powerful reasons I opted for Private Vows, was that I did not want to feel restricted even guilty about wherever I went.  I did not want to be under the authority of a religious superior or a bishop.  I felt I had no call or vocation to that.  I certainly did not want to make some sort of Public Vow and then have someone sight me at the local pub and report me to same.   I haalways loved St Paul, his writings really appealed to me, and it was - sort of - St Paul that 'spoke' to me about going out to the gentiles.  I decided to 'give it a spin' and found that it was working for me in that I found welcome.  Jesus has gold us Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words - go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. (Matthew Chapter 10)

 Down my local 'watering hole' or hotel, before I shifted into this aged care home, I was known as "the flying nun". 

Prayer and patience revealed where God was calling me.  Thomas Merton wrote that if one sits in one's cell, the cell will tell one what to do: Contemplation in a World of Action.  That, in my experience, is very true.  "Cell" becomes simply a metaphor for wherever you might be, your home or residence.  And, of course, it is not literally one's cell that tells one what to do, "cell" is simply another metaphor.

Hence, here in this aged care home, I am sitting in my cell awaiting my cell telling me what to do.  Eventually, prayer and patience will transcend all and 'speak, telling me what to do'.  "Where to from here?" I am asking My Lord.

"Recovering Catholic" can mean many things to different people.  For me, it has to be to sort out what is essential and what is not essential to being a faithful Catholic.  What I think I first clearly noticed was what The Church teaches per se/Jesus and His Gospel and the institutional Church as it is lived out on the ground i.e at parish level.  I began to understand that we are ALL faulted finite sinners from person-in-the-pew to Pope - and so the institutional Church is marked by these same weaknesses, just as it is marked by heroic virtue from base line to the top.  But it is in what The Church Teaches per se that we see the perfection of The Church.

Bob Dylan and his music first was gifted to me when I was so confused and hurt, feeling abandoned and rejected, and it put me back on the road to sorting things out both with prayer and reason, logic.  Jesus is not biased nor a snob and uses many things and signposts along the way of reality, and so it was through Bob Dylan He drew me back to my way, my road.  Gave me back, in fact, my sanity, my reasoning and logical mind.

I think it might be Dylan playing the piano below:

 

 After Dylan speaks, the official recording of Slow Train Coming (with lyrics on the screen) follows.  It is in Dylan's talk to his audience which precedes it that gives the meaning of the track lyrics.

[BarbTherese]

I thought I had posted the following, but apparently not - to my search anyway.  It is from the album Daughters of The Celtic Moon and is an instrumental only featuring violin, flute and harpsichord.  It is with the top plays in my favourite tracks:

 

[BarbTherese]

I have decided to read The Imitation of Mary (Thomas a Kempis) for Lent, though it scares me silly.  I have great admiration for Mary and have her on a pedestal so high, she disappears, as it were, into the clouds.  She is to me the heights of womanhood and motherhood.  Mary is Queen of Saints and Queen of Discipleship of Jesus, her Son.   She is someone far beyond my imitation, even my understanding in the heights of her virtues.  I think it is mere curiosity that draws me to read the Imitation.  But Jesus after all can turn water into wine.........I hope.   I just feel the worst of the worst in her presence, unclean - and I am.  But I am drawn to the book and will try, anyway, to wade through it.

Sour Sobs here are weeds, but they have the most beautiful bright yellow flowers especially in the winter when they are transformed.  A lousy comparison.

Not  quite the lyrics as I recall them, nor other things:

                    

Edited February 25, 2023 by BarbTherese

[BarbTherese]

I had started to read The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything, when suddenly it ended and I was informed I had been reading a sample only and that it would cost $17 for the entire Kindle Edition.  That amount of money is a lot for me and so I have abandoned the book until I might have the money.

Hence, this Lent I am reading The Imitation of Mary and have checked that I have bought the full edition, which I have done.

[BarbTherese]

What I mean by 'recovering catholic'.

Along with my understanding of what it meant to be Catholic as a child was much that was false and old women's tales.  I began to wake up to this as a teenager when the Dominican nun who taught me, Sr Benignus OP - decd, introduced us all to The Gospel and to an understanding of what The Church actually did teach, and what The Church did not teach.

St Teresa of Avila taught that mystical type experiences can be very suspect and potentially from Satan rather than God.  And so I made up my mind to always adhere to what The Church actually taught as well as to cling to Jesus and His Gospel.

[BarbTherese]

I had a fall yesterday but with thanks did no lasting nor serious damage, today I am very sore.  Again with thanks, I fell on to my bottom, rather than my head ?

I now have my large wheeler, which my brother brought this morning, and the bar refrigerator arrives today.  Today too, Older Persons Mental Health are calling in to have a tour, by me, of the home here.  I am staying  quite close to my room as I am still no fully settled in and also, parcels are due to arrive over the coming days and weeks - purchases of mine.

[BarbTherese]

2.4k  replies

234k views

Edited February 27, 2023 by BarbTherese

[BarbTherese]

Christian monastery possibly pre-dating Islam found in UAE HERE

              

 

 

 

[BarbTherese]

My son took me to see my psychiatrist this afternoon.  I don't have an alter ego nor anything related.  She thinks all is flowing from bipolar.  Boy! bipolar can really do the unexpected, the weird, even mimic other illnesses.  More about Flick later.  It's a very long story.  B, my psychiatrist, does not want to see me for another month.  In her language, that means that  she would like to keep tabs on me, but she is not worried nor concerned ......................... at this point anyway.   ?    

She did confess that psychiatry does not understand everything about mental illness, nor do they have a name for everything.

The cartoon below has a male patient; however, I thought overall that it is a pretty good summary of what a psychiatrist is about.   

           

Edited February 28, 2023 by BarbTherese

[BarbTherese]

                          

                     "Saint Therese of Lisieux: Her Life, Times, and Teaching"

https://www.amazon.com/Saint-Therese-Lisieux-Times-Teaching/dp/0935216618

                                                         

L E NT

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

   

[BarbTherese]

                      

 

              ""Little Way for Every Day, The: Thoughts from Thérèse of Lisieux"":

                     HERE

Condition:  GoodGood

“Slight Creasing To Spine and Wear To Edges Of Pages”

Price:      AU $4.54

_________________________________________

Available on AMAZON as well.........and Kindle:          https://www.amazon.com.au/Little-Way-Every-Day-Thoughts-ebook/dp/B005Z52JIG

               

Edited March 1, 2023 by BarbTherese

[BarbTherese]

                                

 

Evening Prayer - Vespers - from The Divine Office - for Wednesday 1st March (Universalis website) 2023: https://universalis.com/vespers.htm

 

[BarbTherese]

                                         

                                              Thursday 2nd March 2023

                                                  THE DIVINE OFFICE

    Morning Prayer (Lauds)   https://universalis.com/CFID=254141/20230302/lauds.htm

 

Evening Prayer (Vespers)                                              https://universalis.com/CFID=254141/20230302/vespers.htm

 

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If today is The Feast of The Presentation of The Lord in your local Liturgical Calendar:   Why we celebration The Feast of The Presentation of The Lord

 

[BarbTherese]

            

 

                   Lord, teach us the meaning of freedom in Truth

[BarbTherese]

                                                           FLICK

The first time I met  Flick, he was wearing a jacket very similar to the one below; however, the jacket was a kind of reddish brown.

I was cooking in the kitchen, turned around to get something on the other bench and he was standing there:  "How the heck did you get in?" was met with no reply.  He was tall, around 6'2" or so with brownish black more or less wavy hair past his shoulders.  He looked nothing like a guy I had ever known, nor a picture I had ever seen.  He was a stranger.  It must have been an hallucination, I have since concluded, though he sure looked real, but then how did he get into my kitchen for goodness sake? That all occurred back in 1968, around then.  Flick has been with me ever since as a voice in my head, except for one other time.  He has always been a consoling presence, yet not a presence for he speaks but I cannot see him.  He is not directly from Heaven! I know that!  Nor is he from Hell in any way.  I am pretty confident about that.

I'll write more later.  My psychiatrist knows everything I know about Flick.  She says that I do not have an alter ego, nor some sort of disassociative Disorder.  The once head of The ANZ College of Psychiatrists said: Ï would love to write a paper on you, but all I could write is "I know someone called Barbara".

 

[BarbTherese]

  

Flick is much too human and male to be directly from Heaven, in that he is no angel for sure.  He can talk about and joke about quite sensual matters.  I don't think he is from Hell either, because he is a consoling 'presence', a consoling voice encouraging me along my way although in a disagreeing sort of way.  But he can respect what is MY way, my chosen way.   He has no grasping of private vows, nor why I made them in that he cannot identify with my reasons.  He is not religious in any way.  As I said, much too humanly non religiously male to be anything but human to me.  Perhaps he is merely a figure out of the hallucinations, madness and craziness, of a bipolar sufferer.  Perhaps.  Problem is, for anyone to state that what I have seen and hear is not real is madness to me, when I experience them as very real.

Warning:   The whole story of my association with Flick just might get too way out for some, even many, to continue reading.  C'est La Vie - and Life, I love You.

 

                              LYRICS TO "THE PILGRIMAGE" by Saxon HERE

 

To be continued.............